


He Deserves the Best

by TuppingLiberty



Series: TLIb AU August 2018 [8]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blind Date, Canon-Typical Partying, M/M, Secret Relationship, Winter Screw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-22 21:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15591294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TuppingLiberty/pseuds/TuppingLiberty
Summary: AU August Day 8: Ransom and Holster want to set Jack and Bitty up with Winter Screw dates.AU Yeah August first came from this blog: https://lnc2.tumblr.com/post/174925809860/au-yeah-august. I decided to make my own calendar of prompts using this wonderful blog post: http://perfectlyrose.tumblr.com/post/101118660910/au-prompts-masterlist-of-lists. I randomized the lists, then pulled a prompt from each list for 31 days.Today’s prompt is from the list:http://shittyaus.tumblr.com/post/134866855116/any-au-for-two-people-who-are-in-a-hidden . The prompt is: we’re secretly dating and my friend suggested a double date and it turns out my secret date was you





	He Deserves the Best

“Bro, I got you a refill.”

Holster hands over a red solo cup filled with liquid of dubious alcohol content, but it’s an epikegster, so Justin just shrugs and takes a large swallow. Hmm. Dubious taste, too. “Thanks, bro.”

“What’cha looking at?”

Justin nods his head across the party, where Bitty and Jack are hanging out in a corner, laughing.

Holsom shakes his head, tsking under his breath. “They’re never going to meet people if they just hang out together like that,” he mutters, his hip leaning into Justin’s as he frowns. Suddenly, he turns to Justin and slaps him on the arm. “Dude, Ransy! We should get them peeps for Winter Screw! Dates!”

“You don’t think Jack’s going to go with Camilla again?”

“Isn’t she dating March?”

Justin frowns at the thought of his ex. “Oh yeah.”

“Dude, we should find them dates!” Holster repeats with just as much enthusiasm as before. He holds his own solo cup up in a ‘cheers’ motion, and Justin clinks their cups together, taking another swallow of Mysterious Liquid That Is Definitely Alcohol™.

They manage to corner Jack and Bitty by the stairs. “Were you guys bailing on the party already?” Justin asks.

For some reason, Bitty turns bright red, then laughs. “No! Of course not. I mean, Jack was, right Jack? But I just needed to grab my phone, it’s been charging. Um. Yeah. Right, Jack?”

“Right,” Jack agrees, also looking red in the face. “Bed. I’m tired.”

“Aw, Jack-Jack, you never stay longer than one drink unless Bitty is dancing. Bitty, you should come dance with me! Get Jackie to stay!” Holster whines.

Only when he’s drunk does Holster lose all ability to remember that Jack doesn’t have any nicknames.

Bitty glances at Jack, then gives a little shrug, and lets Holster tug him out on the living room floor. As the ultimate wingman, Justin changes the music to his “Bitty Bump It” list, and Partition starts pouring out of the Haus speakers. As is typical, there’s a Bitty scream, and then the dance floor, pumped by Bitty’s enthusiasm, goes about 110% harder than they had been before.

Justin works his way in, nestling the bumping and grinding Bitty in between his and Holster’s body in a way that’s probably not helping Bitty get a date, but hey, no random dude should just be allowed to come up and grind on their Bitty. He’s special. He deserves better. Like what Justin’s spreadsheets and Holster’s connections can get him.

Jack even shuffles over, where Justin takes great joy in teaching Mr. Hockey Robot how to swing his hips to the music. There’s a heat in Jack’s eyes when he watches Bitty, but Justin’s a little too drunk to notice it outright.

At a break in songs that Justin built in directly for that purpose, he and Holster pull Jack and Bitty away from the dance floor, because honestly, it _is_ a little much to expect Jack to stay much longer. He should get a chance to decide whether he wants to go upstairs or not.

“Dude, we want to find you guys dates to Winter Screw!” Holster yells, maybe a little too loudly.

Bitty laughs, then glances at Jack, then laughs again.

“Is that a yes?” Justin asks, looping his arm over Bitty’s shoulders.

“I don’t know yet,” Bitty murmurs, looking at Jack again.

Jack clears his throat. “I mean. Winter Screw is...fun? And Bitty should have fun there.”

This is, apparently, not the answer Bitty had been looking for. “Oh really? Should Jack have fun there too?”

“Uh. Yeah. I mean, as much as Jack has fun.”

Justin shares a glance with Holster over Bitty’s head that goes largely ignored by the other two. Suddenly, Bitty turns to him, overly bright, slapping him on the chest. “You know what, y’all? Go ahead. Set me up on a date to Winter Screw.” He sounds a little belligerent, a little defiant, and his eyes flare in Jack’s direction.

“And you, Jack?” Holster gestures with his solo cup.

“Um. Yeah. Sure. D’accord. Whatever.”

Bitty’s eyes narrow and Holster and Justin. “One thing, though, misters. If you’re setting us up, we get to set you two up with dates.”

Justin glances over at Holster, who shrugs. It’s just a Winter Screw after all, not like a marriage proposal. If the date is awful, the two of them have an escape mechanism already planned. “Sure, Bits, that sounds fair.”

Bitty looks satisfied, and they all clink their cups together to seal the deal.

Jack and Bitty make their excuses quickly after that, both claiming they’re tired. Justin gets Holster and him another round, then finds his platonic life partner outside on the ground, staring up at the stars. Realizing they’ve reached the quiet, contemplative time of the party, Justin slides into the slot next to him, handing over the cup and resting his head on Holster’s shoulder.

It’s a little chilly, even to Holster and Justin’s warm-blooded standards, but the air is crisp and clear, and a million stars can be seen. It’s in this quiet that Justin whispers, “I don’t know if I want to be a doctor.”

Holster stiffens beside him, then relaxes again after a few moments. “Why not, bro?”

“I drive myself crazy with the pressure of class, how’m’I supposed to be a doctor? What if I go into coral reef mode and someone dies?”

“Bro.” Holster’s shoulder nudges his cheek, and then he can feel Holster’s chin in his hair. Farther down, their fingers brush together. “You won’t. You’re the best goddamned D-man I know, and you protect your own. Class is like…” Holster raises his cup, sloshes a little alcohol, and then giggles at his own drunkenness. “Like, not real life, right? Like. They’re stressing you out now so that you just, like, _know_ when you’re with a patient or whatever. I’m not saying it’s not going to be stressful, but hockey is stressful, right? Just a different kind. And you handle that stress really fucking well. I wouldn’t want anyone else on my line.”

To punctuate his statement, he chugs the last of his cup and then lets out a loud belch which makes Justin punch him lightly in the stomach as he tells him to stop being gross, which leads to a small wrestling match, which finally leads to Holster leaning back on his heels and holding his hands out. “C’mon, bro, I can promise we don’t want to sleep out here tonight.”

They do a last check of the Haus - the frogs are on party detail, and Chowder is taking that charge religiously, so everything is covered, there - and trudge up the stairs to the attic.

As he often does, Justin climbs into bed with Holster rather than trying to drunkenly make his way to the top bunk. He cursorily pulls a blanket over them, then lays his head on Holster’s shoulder again. His favorite pillow, probably.

Just as he’s drifting off to sleep, his brain makes certain connections, and he turns his face into Holster’s neck. “Dude. Dude.” He keeps repeating it until he gets a grunt from Holster. “Dude, Holsty, I think Jack is into Bitty. Like, he wants to tap that, you know?”

“Who wouldn’t? Have you seen Bitty dance? And those _pies.”_ Holster grumbles, pulling the blanket up higher and snuggling in.

“Right?” With that, Justin falls asleep with Holster’s arm around his shoulders.

 

Sunday morning comes a few hours later to greet them with the smell of pancakes and bacon. “Oh my god, Bitty, I love you,” Justin mumbles into Holster’s neck.

Holster groans, then yawns, then pulls Justin closer. “He’s the fucking best, you know? Jack deserves the best.”

“Heck yeah he does.”

“We should, like, do some recon, just to be sure. Before we set them up, I mean. I’d hate to ruin their line chemistry.”

“Good idea, bro.”  

Holster’s morning wood is poking into his thigh, but it ain’t no thang among bros. One doesn’t share a room with another person this long without seeing their dick in many, many different states of being. Neither of them mention it, and Justin just lets Holster roll out of bed to go to the bathroom and do his business without further dick-scussion.

He’s only half-dressed when he walks into the kitchen, lifting Bitty up in a tight hug and thanking him for breakfast.

“Oh, honey, it’s nothing,” Bitty replies breezily, with a slap to his arm. “I made blueberry like you love.”

Justin glances over to Jack, but sees no jealousy. If anything, Jack looks especially lazy and satisfied this morning. If Justin didn’t know better, he’d say Jack got laid last night, and maybe again this morning. If he didn’t know better.

Then Holster comes down to the kitchen, hair all messy, and declares today a lazy day, and Justin forgets about doing Jack-Bitty recon.

 

Justin corners Bitty alone in the kitchen a week before Winter Screw. “We think we have a date for you.”

Bitty seems to deflate a little, sighing as he scrubs a pie tin. Justin picks up a spare scrubby brush and starts helping with the dishes. “Okay.”

“Do you want to know who?”

“Mostly I want to know if they’re going to throw up on my shoes or not.”

Justin laughs. “Oh god, I forgot about last year.”

“Believe me, I have _not.”_

“I think maybe he won’t throw up on your shoes, but I can’t guarantee it.” He rinses the pie tin Bitty had been working on and dries it. “Do you want to know? I kind of want you to know beforehand, so you can reject him, or not. Whatever.”

Bitty sighs wistfully again. “Yeah, you can tell me, I s’pose. Are you really going to let me bow out if I don’t like him, though?”

“Of course, Bits. It’s not like you have to go against your consent or something.”

Bitty hands him another clean plate to dry, and looks at him expectantly.

“So, um. It’s kind of out of left field, maybe, but Holster and I kind of, um, noticed a certain guy who seems really into you, but he might be, like, too scared to make a move? Because he’s maybe really quiet and shy and there’s a lot of rumors about him and pressure on him?”

“Oh-okay. Um- who?”

“Jack,” Justin says on a breath out. “Would that be too weird, going on a date with the captain? I just think he’s really into you, even though he doesn’t show it and he was all growly with you because he’s a hockey robot who doesn’t know how to show his emotions.”

Surprisingly, every tense muscles in Bitty’s posture goes loose, and he smiles a little bit. “No, I think that’s okay. I think it would be a lovely surprise for Jack.”

“Just don’t, like, break his heart, okay?”

Now Bitty laughs. “Oh, I won’t. Promise. I’ll do nothing to compromise the line.”

“Not what I meant, you know that, Bits.”

Bitty waves a soapy hand. “Yeah, I know. I’m sure Jack and I will get on just fine.”

Justin blows out a breath. “Okay. Cool. Great.”

“Do you want to know who your date is?”

Justin blinks, surprised that he’d forgotten. “Oh, um. No, it’s cool, I can wait to meet her on the night of. Just let me know if she’s expecting anything, like, flowers or whatever.”

“Such a romantic,” Bitty murmurs, patting Justin’s arm.

 

Holster starts acting strangely a few days before Winter Screw, looking at Justin a little more intently. Finally, Justin wrestles him to the floor of the Haus living room after a game of MarioKart, and asks, “What is _up_ with you, dude? You’re being all weird and stuff.”

Pinned, Holster looks pensively up at him. “Did Bitty or Jack tell you who they’re setting you up with at Winter Screw?”

Justin shakes his head. “Why? Did they tell _you_ or something? Is she not cool?”

Holster sighs, and Justin lets down his guard, concerned. Holster uses the opportunity to flip Justin over to his back, grinning triumphantly. “Nah, it’s cool. It’ll be fine, I’m sure.”

 

He seems even more nervous on the night of Winter Screw, asking Justin a million times if he looks okay, if Justin likes his hair, if there’s anything in his teeth.

Bitty, on the other hand, doesn’t seem nervous at all.

Jack is his normal, silent, hockey robot self.

They walk to Screw together, the four of them, with Nursey and Dex flying solo together and Chowder and Farmer trailing behind.

They let the frogs go ahead as they wait to pay, Justin figures, for he and Holster’s dates.

“Okay, so who’s revealing dates first?” Bitty asks, his eyes light with happiness.

“Uh, we can go, I guess,” Holster mumbles.

“Yeah. Okay. So, Jack, we were wondering if you would go to Winter Screw with Bitty.”

Jack glances at Bitty, then lets out a strange laugh, and Justin is immediately offended. “It’s not a joke, asshole.” He punches Jack in the arm for good measure.

Jack holds up his hands in defense, as Bitty lets out an even louder laugh. And then Justin’s eyes are going wide as Bitty goes up on tip toes to wrap his arms around Jack’s neck and pull him in for a deep kiss. An intimate kiss. Not a first-kiss kiss, but like, a “we’ve been boning down on each other on the reg” kiss.

Justin glances over at Holster, and is gratified to see that he looks exactly as flabbergasted as Justin feels.

“We’ve been dating since last summer,” Bitty murmurs. “We both wanted to keep it a secret but…”

“I wear my heart in my eyes, apparently,” Jack finishes dryly. “If you two noticed, it was only a matter of time.” He links hands with Bitty.

“That’s, uh. That’s great! S’wawesome!” Justin and Holster both exclaim.

“Okay, and for you two…”

 _Oh, right, I have a date I should be worried about,_ Justin thinks. He keeps forgetting about that.

“We thought you should go together, too.” Bitty smiles at them. “If you want, Rans.”

Justin narrows his eyes, thinking. If _he_ wants, which means they already asked Holster, which means _Holster_ wants, which means...that could explain why Holster was being so weird the last few days, because maybe he thought Justin would say no…

Holster looks anxious now, in fact, and no, Justin doesn’t like that. Holster’s _his_ rock. So he holds out his hand, finding Holster’s fingers, and links them together. “Sounds good to me.”

 

Later, when Holster brings him a drink and they crowd into a corner by themselves, Holster searches his face. “Are you really okay with this, or did you not want to hurt Bitty’s feelings? I don’t want things to get weird between us.”

Justin leans against the wall, looking out at the dance floor. “The thing is, you’re my platonic life partner, right? Like, you’ve always been in that category in my head.” He looks at Holster, who seems disappointed. “But, like. Bro, you’re mine. Always have been. I’d like to try, at least.”

He leans in, and Holster must, too, because then their lips are sliding together, and it feels so damn _good,_ like, why hadn’t they tried this before? His fingers linger over Holster’s stomach, feeling the muscles underneath contract at his touch. With a groan, he presses Holster to the wall, wanting to feel more of that response, more of what he can do to Holster.

He already knows how to make Holster laugh, and cry, and groan, and sigh. Now he wants to know what it takes to make Holster moan.

Justin finds his first success while sucking a mark under Holster’s ear. “Dude,” Holster moans. “We can’t do this here.”

With a small smile, Justin grabs his hand, drops his drink in the trash, and begins to pull Holster out of the dance.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you like this, please check out my other stuff! :) Comments and Kudos are always appreciated.
> 
> Also feel free to join me in AU august. You are welcome to any of the prompts I use - would love if you leave a comment letting me know you wrote it so I can check it out!
> 
> Happy August!


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